BETTERS FROM PARIS'i 



SITUATION, GROWTH, EXTENT, POPULATION, ANI> 



VIEW OF PARIS. 



Paris, June 7, 1789, 



]My dear friend, I know not whether you will 

 approve of the plan I have chalked out to myfelf during 

 my ftay at Paris ; but it is this : I propofe firft to re- 

 connoitre the inanimate city ; that is, its fcite, its ex- 

 tent, its ftreets, its houfes, palaces, churches, gar- 

 dens, and environs ; then to make myfelf acquainted 

 with the living city, I mean its inhabitants, its fup- 

 plies of provifions, and its wants, its profits and its 

 pleafures; and afterwards proceed to the fludy and ana- 

 lysis of its character : but in all thofe objects to exa- 

 mine and to arrange the features by which thefe parti- 

 culars are to be known. 



I thought this way would not merely tend to a com- 

 plete knowledge of the whole, but likewife render my 

 abode in this place lefs dull, and from the beginning 

 Ms irkfome in regard to focial intercourfe. For, to 

 find onefelf all at once in an entirely new world, and 

 to bring nothing but the ideas, conceptions, and 

 knowledge of my particular country, to their enter- 

 tainment and my own ; would be thought, if not pride 

 or ignorance, yet at all events ennui, and that is a vice 

 for which there is no forgivenefs here. Accordingly, 

 it is a very allowable piece of artifice to endeavour to 

 entertain the Parilians about Paris, in order to gain 

 their good-will through their felf-love, and their com- 

 mumcativenefs through their patriotifm, 



Such 



